The podcast Smartless has a pretty foolproof formula. Three stars as hosts. Each of them is quick witted, likable and energetic. They are close friends so the interaction comes across as authentic and spontaneous. They tease each other mercilessly. You sometimes feel like you’ve jumped into a car for a roadtrip with 3 people who have known each other since high school.

What I like most about it is its intimacy. Intimacy in audio means inviting the audience into a personal space, a place where hosts or guests let their guard down and bring you into their home even though their hair is a mess, they’re wearing sweatpants and the house is a disaster because the cat just tore apart a cushion.  

Bad audio pushes the audience away

That’s the feel of the first 5-10 minutes of Smartless. It’s good stuff. And when the guest on one episode was Steve Carrell, I quickly queued it up for my dog walk but by the 15 minute mark I hit stop and flipped over to another podcast. The reason: Steve Carrell’s audio was distant and echoey, changing tone and shape the way we all recognize from our time on Zoom calls. 

We’ve grown used to this and probably don’t even notice it anymore. But in your headphones, when you’re ready to sink into a great story, bad audio can create instant distance. On my walk, it was like Carrell was giving me a straight arm. Rather than invite me into his house, he was speaking to me through a window from behind a curtain. 

Now, it’s true I am likely more sensitive to this than the average listener. When I left CBC Radio’s The Current, the joke at my going away party was that if a producer told me they had booked President Bush, my reaction would have been, “Great, but is he in a studio?” The implication being, if the president of the United States can’t make it to a studio, maybe we’ll pass.

Bad audio reduces credibility

It’s not just intimacy that is lost with crappy sound but more importantly for a news program, it’s credibility.  That’s not just a hunch, there’s evidence that this is the case.

Eryn Newman from Australian National University led a study of how audiences rated two conference talks, one on physics, the other on engineering. They manipulated the sound of each talk. One version was high quality. It sounded as if it was recorded in a small space where the speaker was clear and the sound had little echo. The second version was labeled the “Large Room.”  It was the opposite of the first with lots of echo and less clarity. The versions were randomly distributed to audience members who were asked to evaluate the speakers. 

Not surprisingly, the audience that listened to the speaker who was difficult to hear thought that, “the talk was worse, the speaker less intelligent and less likeable, and the research less important.”  In other words, exactly the opposite of what you are aiming to do with your podcast. In the end, Newman and her co-author conclude, “sometimes it may be better not to be recorded at all than to accept the adverse consequences of a poor recording.”

See, it’s not just my own personal quirk, it’s science!

Now there are times when lower quality recording makes sense and can add to the storytelling. I once produced an interview with a captain while his ship was in the process of being raided by members of the Canadian military who were descending by helicopter. The only way we could reach him in the middle of the Atlantic was by phone. Phones are great for capturing the in situ feel. For the record, I did not ask the captain if he could make it into a studio. In this case, the crackling of the phone line matched the cracking of his voice which only enhanced the drama. 

Bad audio is tiring for the audience

Obviously, that’s a rare case. As a general rule: If your guest is able to sit still for the interview, then you do not want to use the sound of a phone or the computer’s microphone. Beyond the impact of poor sound quality on the sense of intimacy with and credibility of your guest, it is also tiring for your audience. Wading through poor quality sound takes effort. As Newman points out, there’s psychological research showing that “when messages are difficult to process

people think they are less compelling.”

So don’t push your audience away with poor sound. Don’t exhaust them. Don’t make them feel your guest is “less intelligent, less likeable, less compelling.” You don’t want them to think the topic is “less important”. Put the time and effort into capturing good quality sound from your guests.

Ways to improve your audio

How do you improve the sound quality of your podcast? Let me start at the more expensive end and move down towards very affordable options. The best way to guarantee high quality audio is to book a studio. This will give you pristine sound but it’s expensive, logistically complex and inconvenient for guests so it’s not one I use very often. 

Somewhat less expensive and more convenient for guests is to hire a freelancer to “double-end” the interview. This involves finding a local producer and sending them out with a high quality microphone and recorder to capture the guest’s end of the interview. The freelancer then sends that file to you and you sync it with the recording you have made of your own side of the conversation. It’s relatively easy to find producers in most major cities who will do this. I like to go through UpWork. We found a producer in Buenos Aires who was reasonably priced and available on short notice. And he brought a Shure SM7b to the interview! If you’re a fan of high-quality podcasts, or radio for that matter, you’ve likely heard this microphone.

My preferred approach is to send a microphone to the guest. You will need it to be a USB mic, cardioid pattern and you want it to be super easy to use. I can’t stress this enough. It must be plug and play or you will spend most of your scheduled time troubleshooting. I used to always send out a Samson Q2U. It’s a great sounding microphone that costs about $80 CAD but it has a switch on it and you would be amazed how often this trips people up. 

Lately, I have been sending the Razer Seiren mini. You can often find this mic for a bit over $50 and, if you buy it through Amazon, the delivery is free. It is the true definition of plug and play. No switches, no dials, you just need to be sure the guest is speaking into the correct side and using proper microphone technique (more on this in a later post.)  To record the interview with a shipped microphone, you will want a subscription to an online recording service like Riverside  or Squadcast. Both of these record the sound of your guest’s voice before it passes through the internet and gets all swishy and Zoom-callish. The service then automatically uploads that pristine sound file to your account.

If spending $50 per interview for a microphone is outside your budget, I highly recommend using TalkSync. TalkSync is an app that turns a phone into a decent quality microphone and recorder. In my experience, guests have found it very easy to use and it produces good quality recordings. A subscription to the pro version is just $10 a month. If your guest uses an iPhone or a Pixel 6 or 7, I would not hesitate to use it. I am regularly surprised at how good the recordings sound. 

There are other hacks that can help ensure good quality sound that I will cover in a future post but these options will cover most scenarios. Good audio requires some additional planning but it is worth the investment of your time. You launched a podcast because you have something valuable to bring to your audience. Don’t let poor audio get in the way.